Is ‘follow your passion’ helpful advice when starting a business?

Over a lifetime, the average person spends 90,000 hours at work. That’s one third of your life, and it’s a long time to spend doing something you don’t enjoy.

We’re all familiar with the old “do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life” phrase, but when it comes to starting your own business, how helpful is the advice to follow your passion and to what end should we really be putting our passion at the forefront?

Finding your passion

Let’s face it, the idea of following your passion is a lot of pressure. What happens when you don’t know what your passion is?

Career coach Megan Hellerer suggests “for many of us it’s not that we know and are too scared to go after it; it’s that we have no sense of what it is”. There’s an argument that, by putting the onus on ‘knowing your passion’ (note, singular passion), not knowing what your passion is, infers you are somehow a failure or passionless. We are also multifaceted beings, with the possibility of (shock, horror!) more than ONE passion.

On the flip side to this, it could be argued that if you are fortunate to have a passion, you are risking far more than you should, by failing to heed its call, as suggested by The School of Life, who pose that not many of us have a passion, so when we do, there is an urgent need to pursue it.

To be passionate, is to suffer

When it comes to choosing your profession, author Elizabeth Gilbert famously posed the question: “What are you passionate enough about that you can endure the most disagreeable aspects of the work?” and she makes a valuable point; passion is often synonymous with suffering. So when it comes to advice on following your passion in business, a better question may be “how much are you willing to suffer with your business?”

The hope is that by pursuing your passion, you will also be able to endure the challenges that come with it - be that financial, emotional or otherwise. Professor Dan Cable suggests rather than “follow your passion”, better advice is “follow your blisters”, implying that perseverance and struggle are at the heart of creating something meaningful.

After all, starting a business is a long game. You may get worn down, disheartened, or rejected, but you’re going to need the grit to keep returning to the problem you’re trying to solve. The hope is, that passion provides you with the inertia to deal with any obstacles. Obstacles are, after all, just a stepping stone - a higher place to shine from.

The passion killer?

As any founder knows - when starting a business, you will quickly be confronted with the reality of what people are willing to pay for. You may be passionate about your idea, but there has to be a product / market fit, because ultimately you need to make a profit, we all have bills to pay.

Simply put, to just follow your passion can blind you, not only to the needs of your customer, but the pitfalls of your idea, too. Here’s an example, just because you love baking, doesn’t mean you should open a bakery. There has to be some level of knowledge and understanding around what the market needs and how you are creating value at any given time. The risk is wasting time, not solving an acute problem, and possibly losing your passion altogether.

Passion Vs. Purpose

Howard Thurman is quoted as having said "Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive", and whilst this is inspiring (and true) advice, there’s also a nuance to it.

The Passion Economy, as coined by Adam Davidson, refers to an economy putting creators with a purpose at its centre - often those who have a business or community with a shared passion at their heart. It’s a rapidly growing movement, and very much here to stay - as evidenced by communities such as Sharmadean Reid’s The Stack World, and newsletters such as Khe Hy’s RadReads, both of which have passion at their core and allow their founders to make a livelihood from them.

The Japanese concept of Ikigai may also be a useful guide when thinking about the passion vs. purpose conundrum. The framework cites doing what you love, what you’re good at, what you can be paid for and what the world needs as the four main pillars for success in your work life. So, should the question really be about solving a problem for others, and then finding your passion inside of this?

When it comes to your business, sure passion is important, but there are a whole host of other contributing factors to what will ultimately determine its success or otherwise. Perhaps a practical way to consider it is - if your passion is something that you feel called to support others with AND can be a good fit for your skills and temperament, then go ahead - start your business.

Image source: Research Gate